Under the Persimmon Tree

By American author and former news reporter Suzanne Fisher Staples’s children’s novel, Under the Persimmon Tree (2005), follows Najmah, an Afghan girl who becomes an orphan after her baby brother and mother are killed in a bombing, and her older brother and father are forced to join the Taliban. In a parallel story, Elaine, an American woman (who has taken the Islamic name Nusrat) waits for her husband, an Afghan doctor, to return to her, while teaching refugee children beneath the persimmon tree in her garden in Pakistan. The two protagonists meet under the persimmon tree, signaling the interconnectedness of their narratives of alienation and displacement. The novel is based on Staples’s travels on reporting assignments in the U.S., Afghanistan, and Pakistan; she has said that the plot is made up of stories told to her by real refugees in the Middle East.

At the beginning of the novel, Najmah’s brother and father are conscripted into the Taliban. Shortly after, her pregnant mother and baby brother are killed in an air raid. She takes refuge in the words of her father, who always told her that the stars would watch out for her, even in loneliness. Clinging to the belief that her father and older brother are still alive, Najmah sets out to locate the place they have been taken by the Taliban for their conscription. She dresses as a boy to hide her identity, severing ties with her uncle, who has exploited her family’s peril to take over her father’s land. This trip takes her across the boundary of Afghanistan, through the mountains into Pakistan. Along the way, she travels by donkey, by foot, and on the backs of freight vehicles. Each morning and night, she references the stars for direction and spiritual sustenance. In them, she sometimes struggles to see anything more than a cold and unfeeling light.

As Najmah makes her way to her fateful meeting with Nusrat in the town of Peshawar, Pakistan, Nusrat waits anxiously for her husband, Faiz, who is working at a clinic in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. Previously, she worked as a teacher in New York. Like Najmah, she feels alone in her experience. Even in America, she struggled to connect to her family, whose dogmatic Christian background she never related to. She studied math in college and challenged her inherited beliefs. This search for meaning and belonging brought her to Islam. After studying the religion, she converted and was given the name Nusrat, meaning “one who helps.”



Months pass without the message Faiz promised he would send confirming his status and location. Violence is increasing in the Middle East, and Nusrat hears frequent news of death and destruction not far from Peshawar. At last, Najmah arrives at Nusrat’s makeshift school, stating that she is seeking her father and brother. She has been without food or water for days and is on the brink of starvation. With the help of Nusrat, Najmah makes a good recovery.

In a miraculous turn of events, Najmah’s brother, Nur, appears at the school, covered in desert dust and seeking safety from the Taliban. At the end of the book, Nusrat reveals that although her logical background and falling-out with Christianity has caused her to challenge her faith, she has found the greatest solace in her life in the form of Islam. She does not know whether this is due to the inherent truth of Islamic teachings, or merely the fact that she learned of the Islamic faith at the right time in her life. Nusrat prepares to travel back home to New York. Najmah and Nur set out to find their home, as well, hoping that something of it will be left. The outcomes of their quests are not revealed. However, by suspending the story at this critical moment of hope and longing, Staples suggests that the journey, rather than the outcome, is what unites these characters.